The One With Ross' Sandwich
"The One With Ross' Sandwich" is the ninth episode of the fifth season of Friends, which aired on December 10, 1998. Plot With Joey the only person who knows about their secret relationship, he finds himself forced to cover for Chandler and Monica. This leads to them doing numerous sexual acts in his apartment, leading him to become frustrated and demand that they calm their activities down when in the apartment and act normally if he is to have to do the same, which they agree to do. Later, Rachel finds Monica's razor in Chandler's bathroom and Phoebe finds Chandler's underwear on the couch in Monica's apartment. Joey is forced to bear the brunt of Rachel's disgust that he apparently undresses in her apartment, with Monica and Chandler successfully pleading with him to keep the secret. Later that night, Chandler and Monica are about to have sex and record it on a video camera in Chandler's apartment. However, Joey returns home with a date, who misunderstands and thinks Joey was going to film them having sex, and storms out in disgust. All of this is seen by Rachel. Joey is again forced to take the blame, making him look more and more like a disturbing pervert. Joey attempts to get Chandler and Monica to fess up, and they tentatively agree. The next day, Joey finds a naked picture of Monica which Chandler left in the apartment. Initially aroused by the picture, Rachel catches him with it, and rapidly comes up with a narrative that Joey is a sexual predator who took the photo through a secret peephole, which she tells the rest of the group. Chandler and Monica again try to make Joey cover for them, but Joey instead gets his revenge by making up a story about him sleeping with Monica in London, and that Monica set up the camera and left the photo for him as she has been stalking him ever since, trying to get him back into bed; Monica is reluctantly forced to go along with it. Phoebe is taking a literature class and Rachel agrees to come, but instead of reading the books, she asks Phoebe what they are about right before the class begins. The second time, Phoebe decides to make up a story to tell Rachel, which she repeats in front of the entire class. When Rachel finds out that Phoebe never went to high school and actually wants to learn something instead of just having fun, they agree that Phoebe should take Monica, which turns out to be not such a good idea as she is way too fanatic and everybody hates her as she persuades the teacher to give them a test with essay questions. Ross is starting to unravel in light of his impending divorce and recent eviction, and the straw that breaks the camel's back is when he takes his leftover Thanksgiving sandwich to work and someone eats it. As this was "the only good thing going on in my life", he gets really mad about it. Phoebe writes a threatening note for him that will scare people off. His coworkers start calling him 'mental' and Ross thinks that getting tough with people is a way to get what you want out of them. This however does not work with Joey, who just pushes him off the couch in Central Perk when he orders him to give him his coffee. This causes problems with his boss, who wants him to see a psychiatrist. Ross tries to explain to his boss, but then finds out he was the one who took the sandwich (and didn't even finish it, throwing the leftover away) Ross screams at him so loud it can be heard outside, scaring a group of pigeons. This results in Ross having to take sabbatical, and though he is upset at this, he takes solace in knowing that he is no longer upset about the sandwich. Cast and Crew Main Cast Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene Courteney Cox - Monica Geller Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing David Schwimmer - Ross Geller Supporting Cast Michael Ensign - Dr. Ledbetter Scott Mosenson - Carl, the Lit Teacher Jennette Robbins - Cynthia Alexia Roberts - The Female Student Johan-Carl Nowack - Eric Garcia James Michael Tyler - Gunther Crew Directed By: Gary Halvorson Written By: Ted Cohen & Andrew Reich Trivia * Joey shows off his leg that he had shaved to Monica and Chandler, after Rachel found Monica's razor and he had to lie for them, saying he's playing the role of a woman for a play. Matt LeBlanc actually shaved his leg for this episode. * The book Monica reads in the coffeehouse is Practical Intuition in Love by Laura Day, which had only been published in October 1998, shortly before the airdate of this episode. * Joey pretends that the video camera was to film low budget porn involving him having sex. A little over two years later Ross would accidentally film himself and Rachel having sex, as seen in The One With The Videotape. * When Joey lies that he slept with Monica, Ross simply approaches him and says it's not good for his rage before taking some pills. However, when he actually catches Chandler sleeping with Monica in The One Where Everybody Finds Out he chases after Chandler, in a worse state of mind. However, it is possible Ross was still under the influence of the Psychiatrist's tranquilizer, as Chandler puts the photo of Monica in the magazine the same day. * Joey claims that he slept with Monica in London. In The One With The Truth About London, it emerges that Monica was actually looking to sleep with Joey rather than Chandler. * The bucket Joey is holding has the phrase "finger lickin chicken" on it but the image of Colonel Sanders (associated with KFC) is clearly visible underneath. * Phoebe mentions stabbing a cop. This may have been when she spent time in jail, as hinted at in The One In Vegas, Part 1 when she says "I won't go back to that hell hole". Also Gary, the cop she dates later in the season says he'd looked up her criminal record and told her that she's got quite a colorful criminal past. * Ross gets suspended and later fired from The Museum of Prehistoric History, whose sign we see on the side of the building. But, in The One With Phoebe's Uterus, he says "We work in a Museum of Natural History and yet there is something unnatural about the way we each lunch." It's possible the museum was renamed between episodes. * Scott Mosenson appeared in ER ''in 1999, a series which starred George Clooney who appeared in ''The One With Two Parts, Part 2. * The uncut DVD episode has a few extra lines such as Joey suggesting to Monica that she'll find it hard to resist him, to which Monica replies "I'll try". * Unless they've been put in storage somewhere, perhaps at Rachel and Monica's, there are far fewer boxes in Joey's apartment than before. Also the air purifier seems to have gone too, in fact it's never seen again even when Ross moves into Ugly Naked Guy's apartment. * The novels which Phoebe reads (and Rachel's supposed to have read) are Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Jane Eyre by her older sister Charlotte Bronte. Both were originally published in 1847. Goofs *Joey lied for Chandler about underwear which were tighty whities however later he wore Boxer shorts. It's possible he changed to boxers after Monica requested it. *Phoebe mentions in this episode that she attended literature classes to learn, since she never attended high school. But there have been multiple references to her high school years in previous episodes, including The One Where Nana Dies Twice, where she mentions Debbie, a friend of hers from junior high. It's possible Phoebe dropped out of school after her mother, Lilly, committed suicide. *When Joey is looking at Monica's photo, you can see the light panel and people watching from behind the door when Rachel is coming in the room *When you first see the teacher and he's talking about the Bronte sisters, the audio doesn't match up with how his mouth moves. *When the gang are discussing Phoebe stabbing a cop, in the close-up shots she has a mug in her right hand but in the wider shots the mug on the coffee table. *After Phoebe exclaims that "He Stabbed me First," the shot cuts to a wide view of the group. On the Right, Phoebe can be seen still mouthing the word "First" from a previous take, but the line is already finished. Photos 5x09 Ross cotton candy.jpg Monica_and_Chandler-5x09.png TOWRoss'Sandwich.png Reading Note.png Joey_Shoves_Ross!.png Joey_wants_Sex_with_Monica!.png External links * The One with Ross's Sandwich at the Internet Movie Database Episode Navigation Category:Friends Episodes Category:Season 5 Category:Episodes with Ross' name in the title Category:Friends Category:Episodes Category:Season 5 Episodes